St. John's managed just one hit over the first five innings, and a late comeback led by catcher Scott Manea came up short as the Pioneers lost, 5-4, at home.

It was the second time this season St. John's lost to BC High (9-4) by a run.

"You can't sleepwalk for five innings against a pretty good team and expect to be able to come back and win," Eppinger said. "Sure, we showed a little bit of heart in the last two innings, but it makes it all the more infuriating that we didn't do that in the first five, so (it's) very disappointing. It's one thing to play well and have a better team come out on top, and no disrespect to BC High, but we did not play well."

Manea slapped a run-scoring double in the sixth inning and drove in two more runs with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh, but he couldn't do it all himself as the rally was dashed there — and maybe so were the Pioneers' Super 8 hopes.

"We've just got to be intense the whole game," said Manea, a North Carolina State commit. "We've got to come out ready to go and that obviously didn't happen today."

St. John's (11-4) started Steve D'Agostino against the Eagles for the second time. After keeping the Pioneers in the game late in the first meeting, BC High got to D'Agostino early on Friday, putting up all five runs in the first three innings.

"He just wasn't as sharp and I think we took advantage of that," BC High coach Norm Walsh said. "We got big hits in big moments and that was the difference."

The first three batters of the game reached as Andrew Jaehnig's comebacker single to D'Agostino resulted in Chris LaLiberte coming home to make it 1-0.

A Tom Russo single brought home Pat Keohane to make it 2-0 entering the bottom of the inning, but the only hit St. John's produced over the first five innings was a second-inning infield single to third base by Charlie McDonald.

D'Agostino was pulled after two innings as BC High got going again in the third. It was Russo again with a big hit, doubling in two runs with a hard-hit ball over the head of center fielder Kevin Quinlivan. Sean Webster drove in Russo on Barlok's first batter faced, but the junior was lights-out over the next three innings.

Sean Holleran tossed five scoreless innings to begin his first start of the season for the Eagles, but Eppinger thought the silent bats were more the Pioneers' own doing.

"Our approach was poor the first five innings," Eppinger said. "We chased pitches, got under a lot of pitches, hit a lot of pop-ups. For five innings, we got ourselves out."

Tyler McKeon got St. John's started in the sixth. Manea found the gap in right-center for a double on the next at-bat, while P.J. Browne went to left-center for a double on the at-bat after that, as the two senior leaders helped draw it back to 5-2 after six.

"I was seeing ball well all game, I just got underneath it a little bit the first two at-bats," Manea said. "I finally got on top and hit a couple hard the other way."

In the seventh inning, singles by Brett Corliss and Sam Shaw helped load the bases with one out, while a strikeout by McKeon brought up Manea with two outs.

The highly touted catcher came through, slicing a grounder into right field that brought home Corliss and Shaw. With two runners on, including shortstop Jake Rosen on third, Brown flied out to end the game.

"This is the first time in probably six or seven trips that we've played well out here," Walsh said.

St. John's won its home game against BC High in both 2011 and 2012.

Contact Carl Setterlund at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.